Democratic contributor flees country

TAMPA, Florida (AllPolitics, November 25) -- A Miami businessman charged with making illegal campaign contributions to President Bill Clinton and other Democratic candidates is believed to have fled the country, according to the Justice Department.

Justice Department spokesman John Russell said Mark Jimenez is considered a fugitive, but would not say what steps were being taken to locate him, The Tampa Tribune reported Wednesday.

Mitchell Fuerst, a staff attorney for Jimenez's company Future Tech International, said he doesn't "hold much hope that he is coming back."

Jimenez, a 52-year-old Philippine national, was indicted in September on 17 counts alleging he made nearly $40,000 in illegal Democratic campaign contributions in 1994 and 1996. Jimenez was Florida's largest Democratic donor in 1996.

Jimenez and others in Future Tech International allegedly funneled personal and company contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign through company employees.

The practice, called "conduit contributions," is a way of bypassing contribution limits and laws that ban companies from contributing to campaigns for federal offices.

After coming to the United States in the early 1980s, Jimenez expanded Future Tech from a small computer components distribution company to one that does more than $250 million a year in business.